1. Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for setting identification (ID) to a respective slave of a multi-slave battery management system (BMS) for use with a battery pack including multiple batteries, and more particularly, to a method and system for automatically setting or allocating sequential IDs to a multi-slave BMS having a sequential physical structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Secondary batteries have high applicability depending on the product group and excellent electrical characteristics such as high energy density, and thus are commonly being used as electric power sources of electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid vehicles (HVs) as well as mobile devices.
These secondary batteries have a primary advantage of greatly reducing the use of fossil fuels. Also, secondary batteries do not generate by-products that come with the energy consumption, and thus are environmentally friendly and can improve the energy efficiency. For these reasons, secondary batteries are gaining attention as alternative energy sources.
Generally, a battery pack for EVs includes an assembly made up of a plurality of batteries (cells) or a plurality of assemblies. The cell has a cathode current collector, a separator, an active material, an electrolyte, an aluminum thin-film layer, and the like, and can be charged and discharged by electrochemical reactions between these components or elements.
In addition to the basic structure above, the battery pack further includes a battery management system (BMS) to manage the batteries by monitoring the state of the batteries and controlling the environment of the batteries using algorithms for controlling the power supply based on a driving load of a motor, measuring the electrical properties such as current or voltage, controlling the charge/discharge, equalizing the voltage, estimating the state of charge (SOC), and the like.
Recently, there is an increasing need for a battery pack as high capacity applications as well as energy storage applications. To meet the need, a multi-module battery pack having a plurality of batteries connected in series/parallel is generally dominant.
This multi-structure battery pack may be implemented variously depending on the type of a logic circuit or printed circuit board (PCB). For example, to improve the monitoring and control efficiency, the multi-structure battery pack may comprise a multi-slave BMS including a plurality of slave BMSs to respectively manage a plurality of batteries constituting the battery pack and a main or master BMS to integratedly control a plurality of the slave BMSs.
In this instance, the main BMS communicates with the slave BMSs to collect data of the batteries managed by the slave BMSs that will be used in checking the current state of the batteries and controlling the charge/discharge of the batteries.
To collect data or transmit a command signal, a node identification (ID) of each slave BMS is necessarily required. Conventionally, an ID is preset on a circuit or programmed in an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and the like, for each slave BMS.
Since this conventional method needs mechanisms for operating individual hardware or software as many as the number of slave BMSs included in the battery pack and must manage the mechanisms, it occupies a lot of resources and has a complex operating scheme.
Also, to analyze an error, replace a certain slave BMS, control a specific battery, and the like, it is preferable that the slave BMSs have IDs set based on the physical locations of the slave BMSs.
However, conventionally a slave BMS is given a unique ID when manufacturing, irrespective of the physical location. Thus, a specific slave BMS has no other choice but to be mounted at a specific location, resulting in extremely limited range of use. When a slave BMS is mounted at a wrong location, an error in operating or controlling a system may occur.
Furthermore, when replacing a certain slave BMS, a new slave BMS having a slave board of the same ID as well as the same hardware or software version is required. Thus, a plurality of slave boards should be prepared for each ID and the software architecture should be changed whenever needed.